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December 13, 2004

Priming the pump… some thoughts on Dan Gillmor leaving the San Jose Merc

In an exclusive interview with OhmyNews founders, Dan Gillmor says he is starting a venture to publish an online citizens' newspaper along the lines of the South Korean citizens newspaper OhmyNews.

And it seems that Dan might be leaving the tech beat too. In the interview, he hasn't said much about tech, or continuing to cover tech.

Dan Gillmor: Leaving the San Jose Mercury News

I'm not sure if that's a good idea. If I can remember the do's and don'ts of Personal Brand Building for Journalists 101, you use your employers brand to build a personal brand associated with a specific expertise / viewpoint / industry. Then you have a better chance of monetizing it later.

I would advise Dan not to give up coverage of the tech beat unless he has exemplary skills as an editor because a citizens newspaper means working with thousands of very enthusiastic amateur journalists. And that means lots, and lots of editing, coaching, and teaching. There is no such thing as "free" content.

Also, why is Dan playing with us? Consider the following:

December 9, 3.59 pm: Dan's decision to launch an online venture is announced first by fellow Merc Silicon Beat bloggers. (This is classic two-bites at the cherry launch strategy: give a pre-brief and exclusive to one publication in advance of the launch.)

"My colleagues Matt Marshall and Mike Bazeley beat me (and everyone else) to the punch on posting about my departure -- here's their own blog entry. Seems in keeping with the blog world that they got it first."

June 25, 2004: Media Guerilla (aka Mike Manuel) from Voce Communications runs the results of an informal poll asking which leading tech journalists would leave for the blogging world first:

"Dan received about 60% of the votes, followed by brother Steve Gillmor at eWeek with 22%. Surprisingly, Tom Foremski (despite recent speculation) only garnered 11% of the votes. Neither Jon Udell at InfoWorld or Hiawatha Bray at the Boston Globe received any votes."